Posts Tagged ‘The Seed Company’

The Karon language team, Senegal, have just begun work. Over the next four years, they’ll be translating Luke’s Gospel. They hope to be able to use this to dub the JESUS Film too!

The Karon people’s heartland is in southern Senegal, although about half live in the Gambia. The area is isolated, mostly on inland islands only accessible by boat. There are only limited medical facilities and there are high rates of unemployment. However, the Karon are keen to develop their language and preserve their culture, and literacy classes have been running for the last four years.

‘In October 2013, a two-week workshop on biblical translation principles was held for the Karon. Ten participants came together to learn about the translation process. They represented a wide range of the population: Gambian and Senegalese, men and women, evangelical and Catholic, young and old, educated and newly literate.

‘As a result, three Karon people have been identified to form a translation team, working together with an expatriate assistant in Dakar. It is hoped that one of the three can be trained in the future to take over their work of exegesis.

‘The remaining workshop participants will play an important role in the testing and editing process of the first drafts.’

Praise God for the provision of funding by partner organisation The Seed Company for the first two years of the project.

Please pray:

For the three translators: Eugène (a Senegalese man), Mireille (a Senegalese woman) and Matthias (a Gambian man). Ask God to form them into a strong team with a strong sense of unity.

For Janet Frésard, the expatriate worker, who will train them to work increasingly independently.

For those involved in testing the drafts among the Karon, to get into a good rhythm of receiving the texts, interviewing people and sending the texts back to the team for further revisions.

Ask God to protect everyone involved. The project started in March and already they have met with spiritual opposition, health and family difficulties.

Some people find it hard to see the precedent for Bible translation in the Bible. Other mission work – things like evangelism, church planting or medical help – has clear Biblical examples, and as we read the Bible we can see Jesus and his followers doing this kind of work when the early church was just beginning. But where’s the example of Bible translation in the Bible?

In his poem ‘Pent Up Cost’, David Bowden focuses on language and translation at three points of the Bible’s Story. It’s chock-full of passion and encouragement. Many thanks to Wycliffe partner The Seed Company for the fantastic video production of it below.

‘To hear the word in your heart language is to hear the word in your heart.’

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‘Yes, our mouths will be reborn, our tongues will be made complete,
and from eternity to eternity it will be with God’s dialect that we all shall speak.’

Before that last, amazing day – when people from every language will be together praising God – we want to see people know God through his word, through the Bible Story he’s given us. Join in with Bible translation.

The word of God in English is available to us in so many different formats and versions. We don’t even have to pay for the multiple versions of the Bible in English that are accessible online. The Avatime people of south eastern Ghana were introduced to Christianity a hundred years ago but they still have no Bible in their language.

The majority of the Avatime profess to be Christian but traditional religion is widely practised alongside Christianity. The manager of the Avatime project, Divine Munumkum asks us to pray that ‘the people of Avatime, especially the churches, would fully commit themselves to the Avatime literacy and Bible translation programmes.’

Photo from Wycliffe USA

Translation work has begun and several books from the New Testament have been drafted and consultant checked*. Divine rejoices that the published books – Matthew, Mark, John, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and James – are being read in churches and at other occasions such as funerals. The Avatime have a low rate of literacy so

‘the project has printed reading books which include proverbs, health, basic primers, numeracy and more. In all there are 11 titles. We are seeking permission from the Education Ministry to introduce the Avatime language into the primary school so pray that we are able to do so.’

There is a feeling of spiritual opposition to Bible translation in this language. Please pray for spiritual victory. One of the areas the project has known opposition in is the area of health. One staff member, Walter, has had a big wound on the top of his left foot for over 6 months. Please pray for Walter’s healing and the good health of all project staff and their families. The Avatime project staff need our support and right now you can pray for them. Please stand in the gap on their behalf today.

The Avatime Bible translation project is supported by our partner organisation the Seed Company; for more information about the project please visit the Seed Company website.

* Translations are checked by specialist consultants to make sure that they are an accurate translation and are clear and natural to the readers.

The Guardian have written about a man in New York who has been inspired to write out the entire Bible:

“I hadn’t counted on the fact that it would end up being beautiful,” Patterson said. “Or that it would be so exhilarating. And so long.”

Patterson, 63, might seem like an unlikely scribe for the King James version of the Bible. Tall and bald with a hearty laugh, the retired interior designer is neither monkish nor zealous. He goes to church but has never been particularly religious. Health issues – including Aids and anemia – have sent him to the hospital and slowed the work. He relies on two canes and will lean on walls and furniture to get around his apartment near the Massachusetts border. More from the Guardian article.

A translator writes the word. Photo by Søren Kjeldgaard.

He’s been writing the Bible for interest and for the beauty. But there are people in some part of the world writing for their lives – writing the Bible as the only way to share hope. For example, we’ve shared this account from Open Doors before:

CHINA: “We took shifts copying for 20 days continuously, two copying and two correcting. By the last night, we finished and went to return the Bible. Exhausted, we fell asleep on the way. Morning came and we rushed to return it to the elderly woman, constantly apologizing. We started reading our hand-copied Bible immediately. At the time we had 10 churches, and we used that Bible during meetings. This copy was lent among the churches. This Bible is very precious to us. We hid it at a meeting place by digging a hole, putting it in and covering it with a rock. I used it for 10 years, until it was discovered and confiscated.”

Writing out the Bible in a language that truly speaks to you is a brilliant thing to do, and if you’re interested, we’d encourage you to get on board with the Write the Word programme our partners The Seed Company are running. As you read and write, think about how much we have and remember that there are many people still waiting for their first verse! Give God’s Story.

The word of God is light in my darkness, hope for the hopeless, strong and true. The word of God is strength for the weary, a shield for those who trust in you!

In June last year, the very first Gamo New Testament was released. That’s something worth singing and praising God about!

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This music video was produced by Wycliffe partners The Seed Company with Brenton Brown.

Year on year, the number of people who have God’s enlightening and hope-giving word in a language they understand is growing. It’s worth praising God about!

There are loads of ways you can get involved with praising with Wycliffe: why not try out Get the word out, ideas for inspiring your small group through Bible translation themed activities? Or plan to join with other praisers on 9 November for Frontline Prayer, Wycliffe’s 2013 day of prayer (details coming soon).

How does news about what God is doing around the world get you praising?

As English-speaking Christians, we often forget how much we have: we have easy access to the Bible (in loads of versions) and we know that when we speak, God listens and understands. This account from a worker taking Proclaimers (digital audio players with Scripture recordings) to a people group in Ghana reminds us that not everyone does:

Morgan remembered the early years when he took recorded Scripture to the Konkomba in Ghana. ‘I asked one man if the village wanted to hear God’s word in his mother tongue. He said, “No, no. God’s doesn’t speak Konkomba.”

‘Then I set up a Proclaimer audio Bible and pushed play. The man’s eyes widened. He grabbed a gongo [piece of metal] and rushed through the village… bam, bam, bam! Soon the entire village sat under the trees ready to listen.’

Morgan pushed play again. The genealogy of Jesus rolled out in their language. ‘Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren…’ (Matthew 1:2 KJV) The crowd was riveted. When the story stopped 45 minutes later, they roared, ‘God speaks Konkomba! He’s from among us! We don’t need a translator to talk to God.’

There are many people, all around the world, who still believe that God doesn’t know them and that they can’t speak to him because of their language. Translating the Bible into these languages is a demonstration of the hope, love and grace of God. Give God’s word.

This account was originally published in SeedLinks, the magazine of our partners The Seed Company. Read the rest of the magazine for more about the impact of genealogies, the need for translation, and creative ways people are getting involved with Bible translation.

In 1999, Ernie got a mission. He began to pray for his city every day, and he didn’t stop for 19 years. Now he is encouraging a new prayer group, and churches across the city are praying for the Bakossi people.

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You can find out more about the partnership between Ernie, the Pittsburgh churches and the Bakossi people at theseedcompany.org/ernie.

Today, 12/12/12, Jill Davis from South Dakota, turns 28 years old. And she has one simple birthday wish: to raise funds to translate 879 verses – the equivalent of the book of John – into the language of the Ehty people of South Asia.

For the last year Jill has been building up to her special 12/12/12 birthday by doodling a Bible verse every day on her blog at www.year27.com. Every day, that is, except for Sundays. Jill set those aside as Silent Sundays to remind us that, for the Ehty people, every day is a silent day without Scripture in their own language.

‘This has had a huge impact on my life,’ Jill says. ‘It’s an opportunity for me to use the gifts and talents that God has given me to honor and glorify him. It’s also made me a lot more consistent in reading my Bible each day. God’s word has really come alive to me this year and that’s what I am hoping will happen when the Ehty people of South Asia read God’s word for the first time!’

There are only about twenty Ehty people who have come to faith in Christ. Some have renounced their faith due to heavy persecution, while others have grown stronger in the Lord during hardship. Imagine what having Scripture would be like for these people.

To give you just a taster of Jill’s art, these are some of our favourite of her doodles from the year:

5th March – Psalm 118:24

3rd December – Daniel 2:2-3

2nd February – 1 Thessalonians 5:17

19th September – Psalm 9:8

So far Jill’s a third of the way there with 315 verses sponsored! If you’d like to contribute with her to the goal, you can do it through The Seed Company, one of our US partners. Jill’s artwork is also available to buy at http://society6.com/year27. All profits will go to the Ehty translation.

So, you want to translate the Bible into a little-known but loved-and-used language? Obviously, you need to start by finding the language, but (since you’re reading this) the chances are it won’t be your own. How can you make sure that the final translation is not just accurate, but sounds right and natural to the audience?

Image from The Seed Company

In any Bible translation project with Wycliffe, getting the naturalness and accuracy right are big priorities. And traditionally, the former has been done by extensive testing among the community once the mother-tongue translators and exegetical experts have had their go. But one Bible translation partner, The Seed Company, are investigating ways that get the community involved with the translation much earlier than that: Crowdsourcing.

‘Crowdsourcing is what Wikipedia does. When you open a process to a larger community of interested people, you end up with a far greater aggregation of diverse knowledge, insights, experience, and even areas of expertise that exceed the intelligence of the small, closed group of experts….

‘This year, The Seed Company, in collaboration with our partners in South Asia, conducted an experiment to see what would happen when a Bible translation project is opened to full community participation from the start.

‘The results were astounding. Within months, over 3,000 people participated via their own custom-designed Web site where the translation work resides. About 78 people were confirmed by the community as quality drafters. Over 100,000 votes were cast, answering essentially the same questions: Is the translation clear? Does it accurately convey the meaning of the original texts? And does it sound natural?’

Wycliffe Bible Translators are working with more than 100 partner organisations to get God’s word to people in a language that they really understand. One of our partners is The Seed Company. They recently shared this amazing testimony of the Etulo people, who are starting Scripture translation. It’s The Seed Company’s 700th translation, but for the Etulo people, it’s the first Scripture in their language!

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‘It takes many skills, and many people working together.’ Find out more about working together, supporting Scripture translation around the world here.